


Free Fall into Nothing

by WarwomanWay



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Everything Hurts, F/F, I'm Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-08 05:53:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1929180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarwomanWay/pseuds/WarwomanWay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>All the medical and science stuff is totally made up.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Free Fall into Nothing

**Author's Note:**

> All the medical and science stuff is totally made up.

"Darcy! Run!" Jane's voice screams across the room but Darcy can barely comprehend what is going on with all the shouting and smoke billowing around her from the lab explosion. Its too late anyway as a metal cylinder rolls next to Darcy's feet emitting more smoke that she tries not to breath in.

Darcy starts coughing, and she feels a little light headed and spots start to dance in her vision.

"Lewis!" The voice belongs to Stark and he sounds panic which starts to worry her. "We'll get you out of here." 

""I'm fine." She tries to protest pushing Tony's hands away. "Jane. Gotta get to Jane." 

"I'm right here." Jane answers. 

 It seemed to appease Darcy for a moment while Jane put hands on her trying to guide her out of the room, but Darcy's legs had other ideas as they started to buckle sending Darcy stumbling forward.

"Shit. Fuck." Stark swore. A pair of hands reached around her picking her up in a bridal carry.

Then her world went black.

 

"I'm telling you I'm fine." Darcy protests for the twelfth time in an hour as Bruce checks her over. She is sitting on the edge of a metal table swinging her legs back and forth, getting  _so_ done with this.

"Darcy you got hit with an unknown substance." Jane countered. "Just let Bruce do his job."

Darcy sighed loudly. "Fine if I must but you owe me."

Jane nods. "Fine I'll get you an ice cream." 

That causes Darcy to scoff. "You think you can bribe me like a small child?" She asks. Then after a beat she adds."Make sure its chocolate."

 Jane tries to repress a smile but fails all the same. "Of course."

Its another hour before Bruce finally let's her leave. "If you start feeling any different you come back." He tells her but she's not paying attention because she is to busy staring at Natasha who at some point entered the lab.

"Yeah Bruce sure." Darcy said dismissively. She was so done with this day.  _So done._

 

Ever since she moved in with Darcy, Natasha has started to sleep deeper than she had before. Back in the red room she was trained to always be on alert even in her sleep. Some of the training had still stuck which is why she bolted straight up in the bed. 

 _Something was wrong._ Her mind told her. She accessed the room. Darcy's side of the bed was empty and judging from the coldness it had been that way for at least an half hour. 

 The bathroom door was slightly ajar the light shining through. Natasha took off in a mad dash as she heard the pained whimper coming from the room. 

"Darcy!" Natasha screamed unable to keep her emotions in check as she found her girlfriend curled into a ball in front of the toilet, shaking uncontrollably.

"I...it hurts." Darcy whimpered out reaching for Natasha who was now on her knees hovering over the young intern.

"Just hold on." She demands taking Darcy's cold clamy hands into hers. "I'm calling for help." 

 

"Just spit it out, Dr. Banner." Natasha demands. Everyone was gathered around waiting to here the results about their beloved plucky assistant. 

Bruce takes a deep breath. "I...The results came back. The gas that hit Darcy was a neurotoxin."

"So how do we fix it?" Steve asks.

Bruce shakes his head and everyone notices his eyes are damp. "There isn't a cure." He removes his glasses and turned his back for a moment of composure. "It will slowly attack her body, and eventually it will shut down completely."

"So what? We're just going to stand by and watch her die?" Clint ask his fists are clenched in anger. 

"No! There has to be away." Tony stands up and all eyes are on him. "If there is a way to save Lewis we'll find it. Right Bruce?" 

Bruce says nothing but the look in his eyes is evident. 

Clint is the only who notices Natasha slip out of the room. 

 

"I thought I'd find you here."

"You found me now you can leave." Natasha said softly anyone else would have missed the underlying threat in her tone. 

He doesn't leave. He knows she really doesn't want him to leave. He sits against the wall next to her. "Nat?" 

After a few moments of silence she turns to face him. Her eyes were red and puffy but neither comment on it , instead he just pulls her into his arms. 

"I knew it was to good to be true." Natasha whispers. "I knew after everything I have done I wouldn't be allowed a happy with ending. I was foolish to think other wise."

Clint shakes his head. "No. This isn't you fault."

Natasha thought about it for a moment. "Maybe not but still some one innconent is having their lives stolen from them while I just watch. What am I suppose to do Clint?" 

 

"Where's Natasha?" Darcy ask Thor whose lap she was sitting in as he carefully braided her hair.

"Im afraid I don't know, Lady Darcy." Thor answered his arms holding her closer to his chest.

That's what pissed her off it had been three days since she had gotten sick and Natasha barely acknowledge her presence. No one was telling her a damn thing and everyone was treating her like she was made of freaking glass. She just wanted her girlfriends arms around her and some damn answers.

Thor's fingers worked deftly through her hair being gentle not to pull her hair more then need be. "You are a brave warrior Lady Darcy." 

 Darcy blinks in surprise. No its not unlike Thor to speak praises of her but the strong emotions in his voice caught her off guard.

"You ok there big guy?" 

Thor doesn't answer his hold tightened around her as he buried his face in her hair. He starts rocking her back and forth. "I am honured you are my lightening sister." He mumered and Darcy can feel a wetness in her hair. 

 

Darcy's eyes flutter open when she feels something soft and warm against her forehead. 

"Natasha?" Darcy mumbled sleepily.

The redhead says nothing as she slides into bed behind to her girlfriend, wrapping her arms around the smaller woman's waist and buried her face in the crook of Darcy's neck.

Darcy welcomes the extra body heat since she hasn't stopped freezing since the night Natasha found her on the bathroom floor. 

Fingers run gentle through Darcy's hair and her eyes begin to get heavy once again as she is pulled into the security that Natasha has provided. 

Just before she is completely asleep she can hear Natasha sing to her, it's in Russian and she had no idea what it means, but she decides its the most beautiful thing she has ever heard. 

 

"I'm dying aren't I?" Darcy voice cracked. 

"I.." Jane started but then a sob escaped her mouth. 

It felt like a ton of bricks hit her the chest. She couldn't breath as the panic set in. Jane put her hand on her back and Darcy was torn between pulling away and falling into Jane's arms clinging to all she had left. 

Finally when she gets herself under control she meets Jane's eyes. "How long do I have left?"

"Bruce said probably a few weeks a month at the most." 

Darcy lurched forward gasping for breath while simultaneously sobbing. Her sobs were soon interrupted with a series of painful body wracking coughs. Darcy took her hand from her mouth to see a crimson substance staining her fingers. 

"Oh god." Darcy cried as Jane gently pulled her close. 

 

"Tony stop this." Pepper pleaded her hands on his arms. He was just staring through her. "You're killing yourself."

Tony laughed bitterly. "Yeah because instead there is woman up there fighting for her life." He turned her back on her to look at his screen again.

A gasped came out of Pepper's mouth. "Tony please. You're no good to Darcy exhausted like this."

 Tony turn back around with a defeated expression that just broke Pepper's heart. "Pep I don't think I can save her." And he is clinging to her. 

"Oh Tony." She mumered. "If anyone can it would be you, but you need to sleep."

"I thought I turned over a new leaf since Afghanistan, that I have changed. I thought I could fix this." He tells her still not letting her go. "But instead some girl who has a complete habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time is going to die. She doesn't deserve that." 

 

"I'm scared." Darcy whispers against Natasha's neck. 

"Its ok to be scared of dying." Natasha told her gently. 

Darcy uses what little strength she has left to sit up. "No I'm not scared of dying." She replies breathlessly. "I'm scared of leaving you behind. All of you." 

Natasha stills at her words. "I...Your worried about me?" Only Darcy would be worried about everyone else instead of her self.

Darcy nods. "I don't want you to be alone Nat." 

 

Its around the second week that Darcy collapses during breakfast. One moment she was talking to Clint and the next spots danced in her vision and she lost her balance causing herself to crash forward.

 Steve who was the closest had caught her before she hit the floor.

The rest of the Avengers went into a flurry of motion around her. 

 

"You gave us quiet a scare, don't do that again." Clint whispers brokenly when she finally wakes up.

"Sorry." She croaks out weakly. 

He grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze. "Don't go anywhere yet, Starks trying to figure something out." He pleads with her.

She says nothing yet the tears just silently fall down her pale cheeks.

 

"I give you premision to have sex with Captain America when I'm gone." Darcy declares smiling. 

A small smile tugs at the corner of Natasha mouth. She doesn't comment she just wrapped herself around Darcy, her head on her chest concentrating on her slow shallow breaths which were occasionally followed with small gasps of pain. 

 "I meant it." Darcy whispers after some time. "I don't want you to be alone." 

Natasha closes her eyes to keep the tears at bay. "I'm not alone when your here." 

Nothing will ever be the same.

 

"Run through it again."

"Tony we tried the same sequence three times. I don't think its going to work." Bruce told him gently. He wanted it to work just as much as the engineer did. 

Tony sighed and finished off his fifth cup of coffee. "There had to be something we haven't tried yet."

Bruce nodded. "If there is we will find it."

 

Life isn't fair, that's a lesson Darcy learned the day her dad walked out on her and her mom, she learned it even more when her mom died of cancer when she was seventeen. Life wasn't fair and here she is at age twenty five dying slowly. 

She figures most people would cry and get angry or sink deep into denial.

Sures shes pissed there was so much she wanted to do, so much she wanted to see. She wanted to build a life with Natasha doing fluffy domestic shit, so she's pissed that will never happen, but she's had a good run and she is content in leaving this world knowing she was loved by those that mattered and loved them in return. 

 

It's the middle of the third week and slowly Darcy gets worse. She really can't move without difficulty and it hurts to breath, actually everything hurts but she wants to hold on for as long as she can. 

They have gotten desperate.

 "Even if I wanted to there is nothing I can do." Loki tells Thor trying and failing at keep his face netuaral.

"But there must be something!" Bellows a defeated Thor.

Loki shakes his head almost sadly. "I'm sorry brother there is nothing." 

 

"Natasha!" Darcy screams in pain as she convulses on the bed.

The redhead immediately rushes to her side. She tries everything to get Darcy to calm down but in the end the pain is just to much.

"It hurts." Darcy whimpers. 

Natasha presses a kiss to her forehead. "I know."

 

Its the end of the third week when the Avengers and everyone else just know its time. They each take their turn to say good bye while Darcy smiles trying to keep a brave face but she was never good at hiding her emotions and everyone could see that she is as scared as they are. 

"It going to be ok, Cap." Darcy says reaching over to grasp Steve hand.

He just holds on to her for as long as he can, or until Tony walks into the room.

"Its not you're fault." Darcy whispers to the genius long after Steve has left the room.

Tony shakes his head. "I'm not good at loosing people." He tells her as he wipes his eyes.

 

"Sing to me." Darcy whispers in a faint voice that is barely audible.

Natasha moves the hair out of her girlfriend's eyes as she complies. Soft sounds of a Russian lullaby fill the room and Darcy smiles contently.

Lost in song Natasha didn't notice as Darcy's breaths grow more shallow and then ceasing all together. When the song is over Darcy's eyes are closed but the smile never fades.

Natasha just silently weeps. "Goodbye my love."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Drop me a line on my Tumblr if you want. TARDISBlueSlytherinGreen


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